For Rent: Sunoco headquarters
Sunoco is scaling back, and already its four-year-old lease at Mellon Bank Center feels too big.
Just four years into a 15-year lease, shrinking Sunoco has asked Philadelphia office broker David Binswanger to find new tenants for its headquarters in the Mellon Bank Center, 1735 Market Street.
EARLIER: The oil refiner and retailer and chemical maker has been laying off workers at the 221,000-square-foot headquarters as it closes and sells operations in the field. Sunoco has sold its home fuel-truck network, cut retiree benefits, and is shutting and selling Philadelphia-area plants, with guidance from cost-cutters at McKinsey & Co.
By contrast, Sunoco is expanding its coke (steel-mill fuel) operations in the Midwest, and looking for a possible "partner" for the modernization of its Toledo, Ohio, refinery, chief executive Lynn L. Elsenhans told analysts in a conference call Nov. 5.
Sunoco is also talking to buyers for its chemical factories, including its Bridesburg plant and some of its Marcus Hook works. "We got bids in September," chief financial officer Brian McDonald said in the conference call. "We're hopeful we'll have a decision by the end of the year."
Who might need a big piece of Sunoco's space in a prime building like the pyramid-topped Mellon? Accountant KPMG, Beneficial Bank, stockbroker Janney Montgomery Scott, and lawyers White & Williams and Cozen & O'Connor have been looking lately, office brokers tell me.